This invention relates to self-help and do-it-yourself video and audio production and transmission of sports events and other events such as lectures, and is more particularly concerned with a technique in which a number of smaller institutions can produce video recordings or live webcasts of their events and send them to a common clearinghouse which will webcast the events to subscribers, i.e., to persons who wish to view the events. The invention is likewise related to employment of a central clearing house for the videos as an effective means of producing and transmitting webcasts of so-called minor sports, including meets, games, tournaments and championships.
The common digital clearing house provides a single, common location for gathering and processing all the recorded video productions for the various institutions (e.g., schools, clubs, and associations) and for processing these to make them suitable for transmitting via the Internet and for a subscriber viewing them on a computer monitor.
The invention is also concerned with the archiving of a number of do-it-yourself webcasts of events, e.g., college wrestling meets, for a given season, for a number of institutions, i.e., colleges and universities, which can be produced in-house by the athletic department of the college or university, and can be viewed via the Internet by subscribers at times and locations convenient to the subscriber. The webcasts may be live productions or video recordings.
At the present time, video productions of college athletics are limited to major sports only, e.g., football and men's basketball, and then only for a selected ones of the major universities. Because of the high cost associated with producing a sports event for national broadcast, there is little interest in producing video broadcasts for smaller colleges or for so-called minor sports such as track, wrestling, swimming and diving, tennis, or soccer, other than when the game or meet involves a championship. Because of the small market involved with these minor sports and with smaller colleges, it is difficult for a major network to sell advertising time at prices that would support the costs of the production. For that reason, it is difficult for an alumnus or other person interested in a particular college to view that institution's games and meets, unless he or she happens to be in the local area on the day of the contest.
Currently, television networks are very selective as to which events they produce and when the events are to be shown. Minor sports such as wrestling, lacrosse, swimming and diving, track and field, and others seldom appear on the television networks, and are rarely produced even at local stations. Moreover, when these sports are shown on television, they are rarely shown at prime time, and almost never shown in their entirety. Television network-produced sports events are only one possible source of video content.
In order to televise an athletic event or other event, the television company either furnishes its own staff to produce the event or hires a subcontracting production company. The event owner, e.g., the college athletic department or the collegiate conference, provides the content, i.e., furnishes the teams and officials. Accordingly, there is not always agreement between the schools and the networks as to what should be included in the telecast or other video production. Also, the requirement for a video production company to furnish its own professionals and production equipment makes the production expensive and rather complex.
A number of systems and arrangements now exist for transmitting video material over a computer network, e.g., from a small network such as a LAN to widely available networks such as the Internet or other global computer network. This can involve a computer or server that is connected to some source of video content, which may be live or recorded, and which includes means for transmitting, i.e., webcasting, the content over the network to other computers on the network. Often the systems include some means, such a graphical user interfaces, to permit the users of such computers to facilitate user access and to select desired content. A few of these systems are described in Stern U.S. Published Pat. Appln. 2003/0052916; Feuer Published Pat. Appln. 2003/0005437; Wall et al. Published Pat. Appln. 2002/0120939; Moynihan Published Pat. Appln. 2002/0056119; and Holtz et al. Published Pat. Appln. 2002/0053078. However, while this technology does now exist, no one has considered applying it to the problem of how to provide access to college sports events, either live or recorded, in a manner that is convenient and inexpensive both to the viewer and to the institution.
To date, all video production, both live and archived, requires an outside producer, either furnished from a broadcast station, network or outside contractor. Colleges do not produce video broadcasts on their own of their sports events or other campus events. Some team or game tapes are made for special purposes, i.e., for teams and coaches to review their teams' performance, but these are not broadcast. Even those institutions that do have a video journalism school do not produce video broadcasts of games or meets of the school's teams, and do not archive films or video tapes of these events for web access later on.
While it is possible for an individual or institution to generate a video program and have it aired, e.g., through a local cable system public affairs channel, the institution is entirely responsible for making the program ready for airing, and there is no systemized way for editing, trimming, or enhancing the video program at the local cable station. All that the local cable system will do is to list the video program on its schedule. There are no means available for generating revenue to cover the cost of producing the event of this nature when it is televised, cable-cast or otherwise aired.